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1500 Valentine St., Little Rock, Ark.
Age 60? Occupation Housewife
"My father's half brothers were white. They all fought in the army. They were Confederate soldiers. Once during the
war when they came home, they brought my mother the goods for two dresses, -- twenty yards of figured voile, ten
yards for each dress. The cost of the whole twenty yards was fifty dollars ($50.00).
"I still have the dresses and some petticoats and pantaloons which are nearly as old. I have ironed these things many
a time until they were so stiff they stand straight up on the floor."
Mary Ann King, mother of Dora Holmes, was the original owner of the dresses. She died at the age of ninety-eight
two or three years ago. One of the dresses is still in the possession of the daughter. It has a skirt with nine gores and
a twelve-inch headed ruffle.
The petticoat is of white muslin with a fifty-two yard lace ruffle in sixteen tiers of lace with beading at the top. It
was worn just after the Civil War.
There are also a baby dress and a baby petticoat fifty-six years old.
Interviewer Samuel S. Taylor"
